The present disclosure relates generally to an injection mold for injection molding an article. In particular, the disclosure relates to an injection mold for molding a golf ball.
The game of golf is an increasingly popular sport at both amateur and professional levels. A wide range of technologies related to the manufacture and design of golf balls are known in the art. For instance, a method of manufacturing golf balls involves injection molding layers of the golf ball. This method achieves a layer shaped like the mold. To inject material into the mold, the mold contains gates through which hot material flows. As the material cools, the material hardens inside the mold, as well as between the molds around the equator of the ball where the gates are located and inside the gates. As a result, the molded layer of the golf ball includes flash line around the equator of the ball and gate runners where the gates were located. To make the outer surface of the golf ball have a uniform finish, the flash line and gate runners are removed through grinding, buffing, and other processes. However, even after these removal processes, a gate mark is still visible where the gate runners were located. A gate mark defect rate may be determined by human or automated inspection of 100 or 1,000 golf balls. If there are more than 4 gate marks or there is a single deep gate mark, both by a predetermined standard, then it is counted as a defective ball. It would be advantageous to be able to mold a golf ball with a reduced gate mark defect.